If you use an employment agency, they’ll handle the first round of short-listing.

But if you’re recruiting, then you need to shortlist the pool of candidates for the interviews. If you’re the business owner or office manager, you might be the one handling this human resource function.

Better still, there is a simple short-listing template coming up in a blog post. An admin-assistant can handle the short-listing.

Step 4. Maximise the Interview Event

Fourth comes the interviews, something you’ve been building up to.

In a short time, within an hour or less, you need to spot and select the right person. You can well imagine, the more preparations you’ve made, the higher the chances of finding a good fit.

The person you want and for that person to want to work with you. It works both ways.

Have two people carry out the interview—the hiring manager and the line-manager. If there is no line-manager, then have a second person (perhaps the office assistant) make the pair. A second opinion helps moderate the selection.

Step 5. Contact the Candidates

Fifth step, contact the candidates. Why is contacting the candidate a step by itself?

Because the interview starts when you make that first contact—not when the candidate first walks into your office.

There is a method to making first contact—something that most hiring managers ignore. More of this in later blog posts.

In the next post, we conclude this 3-part series with steps 6, 7 and 8.

Can you guess the 8 steps in a simple hiring process? In a 3-part series of blog posts we’ll cover all 8 steps that a typical small business owner could mirror.

Step 1. Define the Job Requirements

Define your requirements regarding the job and the candidate—in the order of importance:

The job scope—what you want the person to do

The candidate’s qualifications—hard skills, soft skills and expertise

The job title—position in the business hierarchy

Notice that job title comes last. Most employers start with the job title and build in the problem from the word—Go!

In many small businesses the office manager or the owner himself might define the job requirements.

But—this is important—if you destine the new hire to work for/report to a particular line-manager, then involve that line-manager when defining the job requirements.

You’re the boss; the engine under the bonnet; the hands on the steering wheel, driving the business. All true. But every business is a team effort. At the very least, a second opinion helps with moderation. Moreover, you’re paying good money for that line-manager. Maximise your money. Tap that line-manager’s input. Plus, he has to work the new hire. Give him a say. Get him to buy into the hire.

Step 2. Recruit a Pool of Candidates

Recruit a pool of candidates and remember, the larger the pool the greater the choice. This is the class from which you will choose the best.

There are various avenues for recruiting: via advertisements, referrals and internal recruitments. Increasingly, organisations outsource recruitment to professional agencies—head hunters, as they’re sometimes referred to.

Join me next time for Steps 3, 4 and 5. And keep count of how many steps you guessed.

For some jobs, such as sales/marketing/business development—individuals can stand on their track record.

But how do you identify track record/expertise where people work in teams? Think of the shirker in your old college project team. Has the candidate applying for the job hijacked his team’s success as his own? Worse, is he blamed for his team’s failure?

But some hiring managers rely on “years of experience” as a proxy for “expertise”.

Scenario or situation-based questions are the best means to identify expertise.

If you’re a HR manager seeking someone for a HR function, you know the questions to formulate. You have the job-specific skills to pull this off.

If the scenario question is specific to a line function invite that line-manager to construct the questions. He knows best the problems and the help he needs.

Here is a sample scenario question for a hydraulic systems technician in the automotive, industrial, aviation, or marine sector:

System pressure is low. The pressure gauge is not defective. Full reservoir; and the system plumbing is not leaking. What could be the problem?

This is a common trouble-shooting scenario for hydraulic technicians. He might have worked in a workshop for many years. But was he mopping the floor and topping up the oil? Or was he in the thick of things? A scenario question will nail his level of expertise and experience.

Caveat: Do not allow line-managers to waste the interview session by having them cover questions which the HR person can handle. Questions such as what is your strength; what is your weakness; and similar generic themes.

In fact, when the HR or hiring manager is interviewing the candidate, the line-manager should keep silent; study the candidate’s body language; and pick up hints regarding his character.

Here is an outline to identity, measure and grow your team’s human capital.

List 3 to 5 soft skills you desire or reflects your management style, business needs, and corporate culture. Take a team approach (from multiple stakeholders) and draw up this list.

Construct questions to identify the soft skills and proficiency tests to verify expertise you seek. Do not rely on mere “years of experience” as time spent on a job does not equate to expertise. Proficiency tests could be multiple choice or short-answer questions and scenario based questions.

New Launch. Second edition. Heavy revision. What little fluff existed in the original book was edited out and the page count reduced—without forsaking content. Contains 20 tables to the 10 in the original book.

Thin book, thin on theory. Condenses several decades of hands-on business exposure.

Every morning, Alfred would complain about how stressful it was to drive to office. Heavy traffic. Inconsiderate road users. And the traffic snarls from accidents caused by some ‘idiots’ as he would refer to those involved. He would enter the office in a foul mood and take hours if at all for him to simmer down.

Know anyone like Alfred?

Mabel on the other hand never complained about how stressful it was to drive in morning rush hour. She would enter the office with a cheerful greeting to all she met, including the security guard, office cleaner and coffee lady. She was the life of the office and people gravitated to her good nature and cheery demeanour.

Know anyone like Mabel?

What was Alfred doing wrong and Mabel doing right?

To begin with, while Alfred sought out someone or something to blame—externalised his problems—Mabel internalised her responsibility, she looked within and took charge of her happiness. This was all the more remarkable, as she too used the same route taken by Alfred and, in fact, lived in the same neighbourhood.

This is how she ensured a stress-free drive to the office:

Mabel departed from her home on time. She was never a minute late, for she knew in the morning rush, every minute—every minute—added traffic to the roads.

She knew her route very well—in minute detail. Once she left her home, she would get onto the lane that entailed minimum lane switching. She would not switch lanes just to squeeze into one car length ahead, for Mabel knew this meant unnecessary stress and worse, the risk of accidents. When traffic slowed, she would remain in her lane. She had already factored in the time.

She always filtered into lanes by getting behind the next car—not racing to cut in front of the next car.

She always gave advance signals of her intentions and maintained adequate gap from the car ahead.

If for whatever reason, traffic held her up, she will not let the delay irritate her into committing rash manoeuvres. On such occasions, Mabel would think of her loved ones and how much her safety meant to the people at home. And she would call in and inform her boss or co-worker that she was running late. She used a hands-free phone kit.

Mabel practised safe driving. She took charge of her well-being. She always arrived cheerful at the office.

Be the Mabel in your office. And driving—even in rush hour—can be pleasant and stress free. You will be ready and calm and make good quality decisions. You owe this to your co-workers and more importantly to yourself.

As an editor and ghost writer, I meet quite a few people on the speaking circuit – motivational speakers, investment advisors, and a myriad mix of talented people who help others in their career, business and life. My good fortune is, I’ve met many great speakers, genuine people who are passionate about helping others.

Unfortunately, the speaking circuit is a busy market place, unregulated and has attracted plenty of snake-oil vendors.

How do you find good speakers who are genuine and can help you?

Look up their social media presence and you will gain useful insights. By social media, I include all on-line presence: Website; Blog; Facebook; Instagram; Twitter; LinkedIn and so on. Their posts, their comments and how they treat visitors – all give insights to the person behind the façade.

Interestingly, some people who make their living from an on-line presence are quite ignorant of how they portray themselves – their personal branding. Compare this with their signature message – something that they pin their persona on. A person might go on about how he believes in paying it forward, embracing diversity and so forth. However, his social media activity might point to something else – perhaps even detrimental to his image and business.

For example, John, a public speaker, invites Mark to hook up on Facebook.

However, let’s say, Mark declines to join him because he is not a fan of Facebook.

What should John do? How should he handle this rejection?

The worst course of action would be for John to post on Facebook about Mark’s reluctance and criticize him. By doing so, John would have revealed his true self. All the flashy sales videos and sound bites might help him in branding but oversights such as these will surely demolish and make him look like a fake.

How then should John react to Mark’s response?

He could offer Mark an alternative to keep in touch. If not Facebook, there is Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn (which especially caters to business professionals) or even via simple email. It’s so obvious. And if Mark comes across as totally disagreeable, John should respect his (Mark’s) wishes and move along. A relationship maintained is a relationship that might one day bear fruit. It’s called “paying it forward”.

John should never ignore one fact. The audience on Facebook are the very people who are in his circle – the very people he hopes to attract to his talks. The very people that matter.

He could have turned the problem into an opportunity – which is what every motivator advises you to do – but when it came to the crunch, instead of showing his graciousness and consistent branding, John goofed.